Our Hen House: Vegan & Animal Rights Movement | Stories from the Frontlines of Animal Liberation

In this compelling episode, Mariann Sullivan speaks with three passionate advocates working to protect farmed animals through legislative action. Brian Hackett (Director of Government Relations at Associated Humane Societies), Amit Dhuleshia (co-founder of Strategic Action for Animals), and Hannah Truxell (Senior Policy Counsel with The Humane League) share their experiences fighting against the EATS Act—federal legislation that threatens to overturn state animal protection laws—and their strategies for passing and defending farmed animal protection measures across the country. This episode explores: How grassroots activists are mobilizing to defeat the EATS Act, which would nullify California’s Proposition 12 and thousands of other state laws protecting animals, public health, and the environment The decade-long battle to ban gestation crates in New Jersey and the surprising coalition-building that finally made it successful Practical tactics for effective legislative advocacy, including how one phone call to your representative can make a meaningful difference The innovative “Action for Animals” app that simplifies contacting elected officials about animal issues Why traditional animal sheltering organizations have an important role to play in advocating for all animals, including those raised for food ABOUT OUR GUESTS Amit Dhuleshia is a Co-founder of Strategic Action For Animals and Founder of the Action For Animals App (available for download on Play and App Store) as well as a full time grassroots advocate working to drive collective action in San Diego to fight animal exploitation through smart strategic grassroots campaigns for systematic change. Brian Hackett serves as Director of Government and Community Relations at Associated Humane Societies, New Jersey’s largest animal sheltering organization, where he leads animal welfare policy initiatives and builds community partnerships. Previously, he worked as Legislative Affairs Manager at the Animal Legal Defense Fund and as New Jersey State Director for the Humane Society of the United States, successfully championing numerous animal protection laws including bans on cruel confinement practices, puppy mill restrictions, and circus animal protections.  Hannah Truxell is the Senior Policy Counsel with The Humane League where she leads a team of researchers who focus on providing support to THL’s Animal Policy Alliance. She and her team focus on state, federal, and local policy research, drafting model legislation, and legislative and campaign strategy. Hannah led THL’s internal research for and support to the organization’s legal team’s success in defending California’s Proposition 12 before the U.S. Supreme Court. Hannah is the current Chair of the Kentucky Bar Association’s Animal Law Section and co-founded a Kentucky grassroots nonprofit, Kentucky Animal Action. We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. _____________________________________________ The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 7th-9th, 2025. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/ _____________________________________________ Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Between now and December 31, every donation up to $20,000 will be tripled! Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review! Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series. Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky. The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

In this powerful episode of The Hen Report, Mariann Sullivan and Jasmin Singer speak with Steffen Seitz, a Yale Law School graduate and fellow with the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver, about critical legal developments affecting animal rights activism across the United States. This episode explores: The recent conviction of activist Zoe Rosenberg on felony and misdemeanor charges for rescuing sick chickens from a Petaluma slaughterhouse, and the court’s controversial denial of the necessity defense The groundbreaking Ridglan Farms case, where activists succeeded in forcing the shutdown of a major beagle breeding facility that supplied dogs for research after documenting severe animal welfare violations Updates on Wayne Hsiung’s appeal following his conviction for leading open rescue demonstrations, with support from organizations like the ACLU and Harvard’s Animal Law Clinic How strategic legal advocacy is creating precedents that challenge the industrial exploitation of animals while defending activists’ right to protest The growing importance of specialized legal support for animal advocates facing prosecution for compassionate actions RESOURCES Animal Activist Legal Defense Project Animal Activist Legal Defense Project on X Animal Activist Legal Defense Project on Instagram Animal Activist Legal Defense Project on Bluesky We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. _____________________________________________ The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 7th-9th, 2025. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/ _____________________________________________ Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Between now and December 31, every donation up to $20,000 will be tripled! Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review! Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series. Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Bluesky. The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

In this week’s episode of Rising Anxieties, Mariann Sullivan unpacks the absurdity of a Brazilian chef throwing a culinary hissy fit over preparing an all-vegan menu for Prince William’s sustainability event (comparing it to Iron Maiden playing jazz, which honestly sounds amazing). She also dives into the poultry industry’s shocking revelation that factory farming might gasp breed disease, explores Iowa officials’ late-Friday-afternoon sneaky settlement with a water-polluting meatpacker, and highlights Burger King Austria’s brief flirtation with dairy alternatives before caving to the “but my coffee!” crowd. Plus, discover the Orwellian euphemism of the week: dairy cows don’t get slaughtered—they “change careers”! This episode explores: How a sustainability-focused event finally hired an actual vegan chef after another chef dramatically quit rather than cook vegetables (despite 14% of Brazilians identifying as vegetarian or vegan) The poultry industry’s desperate plea to researchers to solve their disease problems while maintaining the conditions that create those diseases Iowa officials’ behind-closed-doors $50,000 “sweetheart deal” with a meat company responsible for 60 water pollution violations YouTube’s temporary removal of an award-winning documentary exposing India’s dairy industry The linguistic gymnastics of the dairy industry, which now refers to slaughter as cows “changing careers” We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. _____________________________________________ The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 7th-9th, 2025. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/ _____________________________________________ Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Between now and December 31, every donation up to $20,000 will be tripled! Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review! Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series. Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky. The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

Attorneys Will Lowrey (Animal Partisan) and Jessica Blome (Greenfire Law) join Mariann to discuss their battle to use California’s century-old animal protection laws to help dairy calves confined in tiny hutches. Despite having clear evidence that a dairy farm was violating Penal Code Section 597t by denying calves adequate exercise, they encountered a frustrating maze of procedural obstacles that prevented them from obtaining a search warrant under Section 599a. This episode explores: How a 120-year-old California law requiring exercise for confined animals, including farmed animals, is being systematically unenforced The procedural barriers that prevent animal advocates from using existing legal tools to help farmed animals How courts effectively nullify animal protection laws without legislative input How the dairy industry confines calves in violation of California law with impunity The creative legal strategies being developed to overcome institutional resistance to animal protection cases ABOUT OUR GUESTS Will Lowrey is the founder and Legal Counsel for Animal Partisan, a legal advocacy organization focused on challenging unlawful conduct in animal agriculture and experimentation. Will has engaged in numerous lawsuits, as well as criminal and administrative enforcement actions against the government, industrial agriculture, and research laboratories, including cases involving federal slaughter laws, public records, false advertising, public nuisance, animal cruelty, and others. Prior to his current role, Will worked for another animal protection nonprofit where he divided his time between civil litigation and providing counsel for undercover investigations. Will currently teaches Animal Law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and has also taught at Vermont Law and Graduate School and the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Jessica Blome, a Shareholder of Greenfire Law, P.C. in Berkeley, California, is an animal, environmental, open government, and land use attorney with nearly 20 years of experience in complex litigation. Jessica represents a wide range of clients from individuals to grassroots organizations to national non-profit organizations in cases involving the status of animals, protection of wildlife, or conservation of the environment under state, federal, and tribal law. We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. ********** You can listen to the Animal Law Podcast directly on our website (at the top of this page) or you can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher. Also, if you like what you hear, please rate it on Apple Podcasts, and don’t forget to leave us a friendly comment! Of course, we would be thrilled if you would consider making a donation or becoming a member of our flock (especially if you’re a regular listener). Between now and December 31, every donation up to $20,000 will be tripled! Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Don’t forget to also listen to the award-winning,  weekly signature OHH podcast — now in its fifteenth glorious year!

In this episode of The Hen Report, Jasmin (celebrating her birthday) and Mariann deliver a delightfully chaotic news roundup featuring animals who seem to be staging their own revolution. From escaped lab monkeys to surfboard-stealing sea otters in Santa Cruz, the duo explores these wild and emotional stories alongside significant animal rights victories. Between Broadway tangents and birthday celebrations, they share genuine excitement about California’s ban on cat declawing and Vogue’s groundbreaking decision to eliminate fur from all editorial content and advertising. This episode explores: The concerning story of lab monkeys escaping after a Tulane transport truck crash, highlighting the troubling normalization of animal experimentation and ownership The return of bird flu affecting millions of farmed birds and spreading to wild populations and dairy cows, demonstrating the ongoing risks of industrial animal agriculture A celebratory look at six animal rights activists being cleared of charges after protesting at the UK’s Grand National horse race California’s progressive move to ban cat declawing statewide, following cities like West Hollywood in protecting feline welfare Vogue’s landmark decision to stop featuring fur in all content, reflecting an 85% global drop in fur production over the past decade RESOURCES Lab monkeys from Tulane University escape after truck crashes on I-59; 3 still on the loose Escaped monkeys ‘destroyed’ after Mississippi police are mistakenly told they’re a danger Bird Flu Is Back Six animal rights activists cleared over Grand National protests California Officially Bans Cat Declawing Unless Medically Necessary Vogue To Stop Featuring Fur In All Editorial Content And Advertising Sea Otters Are Stealing Surfboards in California. Again. We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. _____________________________________________ The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 7th-9th, 2025. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/ _____________________________________________ Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Between now and December 31, every donation up to $20,000 will be tripled! Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review! Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series. Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Bluesky. The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

This week on Rising Anxieties, Mariann Sullivan dives headfirst into the media’s convenient climate amnesia, where apparently animal agriculture’s massive emissions are just too spicy for mainstream coverage. A mere 3.8% of climate articles dare mention meat production—shocking absolutely no one who’s been paying attention. Meanwhile, the agricultural industry clutches its pearls at being called out, with one writer genuinely suggesting farmers are being unfairly “scapegoated.” Yes, really. The episode rounds out with a peek into the dairy industry’s labor woes (turns out people don’t want to work in dangerous conditions for terrible pay—who knew?) and a listeria outbreak mysteriously attributed to “pasta” despite chicken being the obvious culprit. The mental gymnastics are truly Olympic-level. New analysis reveals less than 4% of climate news stories mention animal agriculture despite it contributing approximately 60% of food sector emissions Agricultural industry pushback claims farming is unfairly scapegoated for environmental issues while downplaying its significant climate impact Dairy industry faces labor shortages as workers reject demanding conditions, leading to increased push for immigrant labor solutions Deadly listeria outbreak linked to prepared pasta meals containing chicken has caused 20 illnesses, 19 hospitalizations, 4 deaths, and 1 fetal loss We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. _____________________________________________ The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 7th-9th, 2025. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/ _____________________________________________ Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review! Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series. Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky. The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

In this enlightening conversation, Mariann Sullivan speaks with Jessica Culpepper, Executive Director of FarmSTAND, about their unique approach to dismantling industrial animal agriculture through legal advocacy that unites multiple stakeholders. Culpepper shares how FarmSTAND strategically challenges the systems that enable animal exploitation by representing workers, communities, and animals simultaneously—creating powerful coalitions against corporate interests that typically divide these groups. Rather than focusing solely on the worst abuses or single issues, FarmSTAND targets the structural conditions that allow animal agriculture to operate with impunity, from corporate deception around “climate-friendly” meat to the dangerous proliferation of factory farm gas as a false climate solution. This episode explores: How FarmSTAND builds collective power by bringing together animal advocates, workers, farmers, and communities to challenge the shared systems that exploit them all Why challenging corporate methane capture schemes (marketed as “green energy”) is crucial for preventing the entrenchment of factory farming The strategic approach of challenging corporate greenwashing through litigation that exposes deceptive climate claims from companies like Tyson How worker justice and animal protection are intrinsically linked, with worker exploitation and animal abuse being parallel outcomes of the same structural conditions Why transformative change requires targeting the systemic scaffolding of industrial agriculture rather than just its most visible abuses ABOUT OUR GUEST Jessica Culpepper is the Executive Director of FarmSTAND, leading the organization’s staff and board to fight for a fair food system in courtrooms and communities. Jessica’s 16 year career has been entirely focused on legal advocacy on behalf of farmed animals and communities harmed by industrial animal agribusiness. Her fight for a fair food system began at her alma mater, Warren Wilson College, a work college with a sustainable working farm and garden. Most recently, she was the Director of the Public Justice Food Project where she grew the program from a single staff attorney to a team of eleven organizers, lawyers, and paralegals. As a lawyer, Jessica worked primarily on fighting pollution from factory farms with fenceline communities and advocating for federal and state policy reform to advance fair food systems. Jessica stays deeply tied to the fight for a fair food system in her personal life as well as chair of the board of Socially Responsible Agriculture Project and board member of Warren Wilson College. She loves cooking food from her garden and has a top secret recipe for the world’s best pumpkin pie. We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. _____________________________________________ The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 7th-9th, 2025. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/ _____________________________________________ Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review! Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series. Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky. The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

In this thought-provoking interview, Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan speak with Liv Baker and Kristin Stewart from PAN Works about their groundbreaking “animal trusteeship” framework – a new approach that transforms how we advocate for wild animals in decision-making processes that affect their lives. Key Points: Wildlife Representation Framework: Pan Works has developed an innovative animal trusteeship model that gives wild animals direct representation in environmental decision-making processes Legal Innovation for Animal Rights: This framework builds on pet trust statutes that created the legal precedent for animals to be recognized as trust beneficiaries rather than merely property Decentering Human Interests: Unlike traditional conservation approaches that prioritize human needs, animal trustees focus exclusively on representing the wellbeing and interests of specific animal populations Practical Application in Conservation: The National Wolf Conversation demonstrated how animal trustees can effectively represent wildlife interests in major policy discussions Advocacy Tool for Environmental Decision-Making: The animal trusteeship approach provides a structured, transparent method for ensuring animal perspectives are considered in public hearings and policy development ABOUT OUR GUESTS Kristin L. Stewart, JD, PhD, is an attorney, scholar, and founding board member of PAN Works, an independent think-tank dedicated to the wellbeing of animals. Her work bridges legal practice and ethical theory, with a focus on how we care for and represent animals in law and policy. Kris’s teaching includes graduate and undergraduate courses in animal law, policy, and ethics, and her writing on animal law appears in both scholarly and popular publications. She has also practiced animal law in a variety of contexts, alongside broader work in environmental law and government litigation. Her legal experience—including estate planning with pet trusts and a deep understanding of the limits of the Public Trust Doctrine—informed the co-authored article In Trust: A Framework for Animal Representation. Dr. Liv Baker is a conservation behaviorist and expert in wild animal wellbeing. She is Chair of the Board of PAN Works, Research Director at Mahouts Elephant Foundation, and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. Her work focuses on compassionate conservation and the ways animals shape their own lives and communities. We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. _____________________________________________ The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 7th-9th, 2025. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/ _____________________________________________ Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review! Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series. Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky. The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

In this week’s episode of The Hen Report, Jasmin and Mariann balance the melancholy of fall with a lively rundown of animal rights news. Between linguistic deep dives and Jasmin’s theatrical preparations (complete with “lozengers” of questionable etymology), the duo delivers updates that actually matter for animals. They discuss the USDA’s increasingly toothless enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, celebrate the long-overdue closure of the notorious Miami Seaquarium, and explore promising developments in cultivated meat cat food. The hosts also reflect on how everyday institutions normalize animal exploitation for children, reminding us that the fight for animal rights extends far beyond the obvious battlegrounds. This episode explores: How the USDA’s enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act has deteriorated, with warnings replacing actual penalties for violators The encouraging shift away from animal testing at NIH, proving that even strange political bedfellows can deliver positive outcomes The long-awaited closure of the Miami Seaquarium after decades of animal rights activism Promising developments in cultivated meat technology specifically designed for carnivorous companion animals How cultural institutions subtly normalize animal exploitation through children’s exhibits and displays RESOURCES Animal abusers are getting let off the hook. Trump and his Supreme Court are partly to blame. Can Trump End This Impossibly Cruel Practice? The Miami Seaquarium was once beloved. It’s shutting down after accusations of neglect. Omni Pet Files First Patent for Cat Food That Blends Cultivated Meat and Plant Proteins Flock members and activists extraordinaire Goose and Silvia Rodriguez have written a bilingual (English/Spanish) vegan-themed children’s book called Someone, Not Something: ALGUIEN, NO ALGO We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. _____________________________________________ The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 7th-9th, 2025. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/ _____________________________________________ Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review! Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series. Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Bluesky. The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

In this week’s sardonic serving of Rising Anxieties, Mariann dives into the absurdist theater that is animal agriculture PR. From a tone-deaf defense of “necessary” mutilations (apparently clipping animals’ teeth is just like childproofing your home—who knew?), to some flattering paranoia about our movement’s supposed wealth and power, to the truly disturbing footage uncovered by Animal Partisan showing law enforcement conspiring with industry to shield the public from seeing dead piglets. All this plus a peek at the EU’s linguistic gymnastics to protect meat terminology from the terrifying threat of… plant-based burgers. This episode explores: How the industry’s own justifications for “weird but necessary animal care practices” inadvertently make the case for abolishing animal agriculture altogether The revealing police body cam footage showing state troopers actively blocking journalists from documenting livestock truck crashes to protect industry interests The latest claims about the animal rights movement’s growing influence and coordination (we’ll take the compliment!) The ongoing EU battle over plant-based product terminology, with lawmakers voting to ban terms like “burger” and “sausage” for vegan alternatives A New York Post article calling animal advocates “loons” for supporting legislation banning retail sales of dogs, cats, and rabbits We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview. _____________________________________________ Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content! Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review! Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series. Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky. The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.